


An Hourglass in Zero Gravity

by AlexTirZeng



Series: Turns of the Hourglass [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Aromantic Obi-Wan Kenobi, Asexual Obi-Wan Kenobi, But definitely with a strong Canon leaning - I'll keep you guys updated with what I'm doing, Fusion of Star Wars Legends and Disney Canon, Gen, Headcanonic Worldbuilding, Jedi Culture Respected, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rating may change depending on if I feel characters should swear, That's not relevant yet but it will be, Time Travel Fix-It, attachment does not equal love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:49:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26562409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexTirZeng/pseuds/AlexTirZeng
Summary: There's a space between being and nonbeing where time ceases to be an obstacle.Nineteen years after the rise of the Galactic Empire, Obi-Wan Kenobi is cut down (and yet not) at the hands of his own apprentice. Thirteen years before the genocide of the Jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi wakes up.Things were never so simple as living and dying linearly.
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Jedi Council, Qui-Gon Jinn & Obi-Wan Kenobi
Series: Turns of the Hourglass [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1936501
Comments: 7
Kudos: 111





	An Hourglass in Zero Gravity

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don’t own Star Wars
> 
> Two years ago, I opened Sympathy for Monsters noting that I had no self-control and that I’d regret trying to balance three big projects at once. Well, this is one of those big three projects. I’m also sorry for anyone who was waiting that this isn’t a Sympathy update – the next chapter is giving me trouble, and after the passing of Chadwick Boseman (may he Rest in Power), I really want it to be the absolute best I can make it.  
> I also have another serious subject I want to address before we move on (my fic-related commentary will be in the ending author’s note, and I apologize). In the wake of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s death – if you are an American citizen who is eligible to vote I beg of you that you register. I’d also urge you to call your representatives insisting that her replacement be delayed until after the election (5calls.org is a great place to start if you don’t know who your reps are or if you don’t know what to say, though individualizing your message increases effectivity). There’s also a fund called “Get Mitch or Die Trying” that’s also worth looking into.
> 
> Lastly, and finally on a fic related note, I’d like to give a shoutout to my friend Ella (who’s borne the brunt of my ramblings on this over the years), Ao3 user Katlewis2000 (who has also been subjected to my 3 am rambling), and to Jedi Appreciation discord (who collectively got me off my butt to post this). Thanks guys! And thank you (the reader) too for bearing with me!

**_There is no emotion, there is_ **

Obi-Wan (for he was Obi-Wan again) raised his ‘saber one last time - an _Ataru_ salute to the turning of the hourglass, saying goodbye to the Age of the Sith’s Revenge the way he’d met its onslaught. He turned his eyes to Luke - the son, the second apprentice - and to Leia behind him, and the tentative dawn of the Age of the Returning Jedi flickered to life back at him.

He smiled, and looked away. He did not need to stare at the hope for the oncoming future for it to come. For all that its life was a fragile heartbeat within the Unifying Force, it raced forward even as it stumbled an arrhythmia against the Dark that so resisted it. It would come to pass whether he watched it now or not.

Instead, he turned his eyes to Vader - the father, the first apprentice - and in an infinity between moments, he acknowledged the child the Sith had once been. 

_‘I am sorry I could not save you, Anakin. But it is over; whether or not you know it, this is **over.’**_

And then he closed his eyes, for there was nothing left to be said.

**_Peace_ **

_\---_

**_There is no ignorance, there is_ **

“Learn to let go of all you fear to lose.”

That had been a favorite teaching of Master Yoda’s, and as Obi-Wan exhaled, he understood it anew. He could feel himself unraveling, atom by atom, as his body was washed away in the currents of the Force. 

It was as natural as breathing, as meditating, as sitting in the old bones of a Greater Krayt and looking into the mirror of himself under the guiding hand of the Whills. And now that he had done so, the process was painless even where Vader’s ‘saber chased the disassembling molecules of what would have been his shoulder and chest.

**_Knowledge_ **

_\---_

**_There is no passion, there is_ **

In the absence of pain, Obi-Wan felt himself awake to a new awareness. Here there was everything - an asterium looking out onto Eternity, the rippling waves of then and there and now and could be, won’t be, shouldn’t be. He felt, or perhaps knew, that if he reached out with his _hands-that-weren’t-hands_ and dragged his _fingers-that-weren’t-fingers_ through them, he’d be able to taste the values of the functions of each current on his _tongue-that-no-longer-was_ and that if he breathed the right way, there’d be an Eternity waiting for him that turned in tandem with this Eternity in the here-between, a fluid ease between one and the other.

**_Serenity_ **

_\---_

**_There is no chaos, there is_ **

_Life is opportunities and choices, little Jedi._

The voice was almost featureless - more a vibration in _bones-that-weren’t_ than a sound - but it rang clear regardless, spoken with a mouth made of each wave and eddy and stitch in timespace and all the spaces in between. A million futures spilled out from each tone, a million pasts folding between words. 

_If you had the chance to change everything, would you?_

**_Harmony_ **

_\---_

**_There is no death, there is_ **

He looked back to where he’d come from, past Luke’s yell of grief and Vader’s stamping on his robe as if that’d reveal where he was, all the way back to the boundary between being and nonbeing.

He smiled.

“That’s hardly a choice at all now, really,” he offered back, using a mouth that wasn’t and a voice that almost was. He chuckled quietly to himself and to the Eternity both. “Hardly a choice at all.” 

And with that, he turned back to cross the event horizon.

**_The Force_ **

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Thank you for reading! As those of you who know me might expect, I have a ton to say about this and this ‘verse, but I’ll uh, try to keep it short. 
> 
> I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time. I spent the early days of being a Star Wars fan just devouring every time travel fic I could find (I’m not even kidding; I’d even read ones that I knew would squick me out and then just…duck out when it got to be too much for me. I was that fixated) and let’s just say I’ve been wanting to try my hand at one ever since. So, here we are!
> 
> This is also an excuse for me to do Jedi culture headcanoning and worldbuilding, because I love worldbuilding and also the Jedi, AND to rub my little Asian hands all over George Lucas’s culturally appropriated material. (That being said, I want to acknowledge that my experience isn’t that of all Asians, that Lucas appropriated from more Asian cultures (Lucas took a lot of “inspiration” from Japanese culture especially) than just the ones that I belong to, and that while I can speak to general the East Asian-ness and Buddhist and Daoist themes, I cannot speak to everything. I mean, obviously I’ll do my best, but… there’s so much to being Asian that I could never encapsulate all of it. Asia is enormous, there’s no way I could. (Also, I’ll admit that this is in part a catharsis thing, so there might be a slant towards things that resonate with me personally and I apologize for that.) I also want acknowledge that there are non-Asian people who see themselves and their cultures in the Jedi. I see you, and I want to be clear that just because I have my reading and headcanons, I don’t mean to invalidate yours).
> 
> On a much less serious note, the whole fic isn’t going to be in this vaguely prose-poetry style. I just figured the more fantastical I could make going Force Ghost, the better. Also, I have a couple of references to things tucked away in here (including, in a shameless self-plug, to one of my own other Star Wars fics); let me know if you catch them!
> 
> See you next time!
> 
> Crossposted on Fanfiction.net


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